Cornering Ecstasy
Toyota Marketing Japan
Issue 27 | June 2013
Agency
Hakuhodo Kettle | Hakuhodo
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Yoshiharu Kiba Creative Director Kentaro Kimura Planner Ikuko Ota Hikdeaki Oki Ryunosuke Goto Tomohiko Hayashi Kensuke Sembo Copywriter Tomomi Maeda Art Director Kaoru Kasai
Production Team
Executive Producer Atsuki Yukawa Producer Yohei Kawasaki (Rock N Roll, Japan KK) Director Kensaku Kakimoto (Office-saku) Visual Effects Editor Keisuke Terashima Suguru Tachikawa Naoki Kumamoto (EDP Graphic Works co ltd.) Sound Designer Hajime Yoshizawa Masataka Kitaura Technical Adviser Hidenori Chiba Youichi Sakamoto (Rhizomatiks co ltd) Camera Frame Manufacture Sei Bessho (ERGO JAPAN)
Date
October 2012
Background
In 2012, Toyota launched its new back-to-basics sports car, the Toyota 86.
At the same time, they developed a new service platform designed for Toyota 86 owners to coincide with the launch of the car.
Idea
The Toyota 86 was designed to go sideways and to reward the enthusiastic driver with endless hours of cornering fun.
The only problem is, if you were a Toyota 86 owner, you would never actually get to see yourself doing what the car was designed to do.
That was why ‘Cornering Ecstasy’ was created, a way of capturing on film how the car turned in every bend with precision and control.
86 sensor-controlled cameras were positioned on the bend of a winding road and at a sharp turn on a motor-racing circuit.
Toyota 86 owners could sign up to drive through one or other of these and have the moment recorded in both stills and a time-slice movie which captured him and his car from 86 different angles.
Results
The unique service became headline news worth about $3.15 million.
Despite the participation fee ($100), the number of requests from Toyota drivers to be photographed was exceeded three-fold.
Most Toyota 86 drivers shared their photographs online, creating even more of an advertising effect.
For the first-time ever, Toyota was ranked as the Number One maker of sports cars in Japan. And there were long queues of Toyota 86s waiting to be snapped.
Our Thoughts
Frank Budgen used this technique in a commercial for Transport for London. It was mesmerising, seeing a split second captured in 180°. Naturally, advertising being the way it is, the technique was ripped off mercilessly whenever and wherever creative teams had run out of ideas. But this is technique transformed, technique for a reason. Every high-speed moment is not just frozen but memorable because it’s personal. It’s also yet another of those ideas which blurs the distinction between virtual and real, one driver’s actual experience turned into an event tens of thousands of strangers could share and enjoy.
Simple. But, as well know, getting to a simple idea is rarely easy.